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BlizzCon 2013 in photographs
BlizzCon might be over, but pictures last forever, or at least until something happens to our data center. Don't get any ideas. Hey, where are you going with that tornado?! Enjoy our view of the con! Massively's on the ground in Anaheim during the weekend of November 8th, bringing you all the best news from BlizzCon 2013. Whether you're anticipating World of Warcraft's and Diablo III's next expansions or reveals from Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, we aim to have it covered!
Massively's BlizzCon 2013 liveblog: Opening ceremony and WoW presentation
BlizzCon 2013 is now underway, and we're expecting big news from the folks at Blizzard, like more details on the Diablo III Reaper of Souls expansion. There's also the first ever Innkeeper's Invitational for Hearthstone, the white-knuckle gameplay of the StarCraft 2 tournaments, and the Hollywood insanity of the upcoming World of Warcraft movie. Most MMO gamers, however, are anxiously waiting to hear about World of Warcraft's fifth expansion. Is it happening? Whom are we fighting? Where are we going? Are there any new classes and races? If you want to be among the first to know but didn't snag a ticket, real or virtual, then join us in the comments below as we blog about all the juiciest news -- live! And don't forget that the opening ceremonies are being streamed for free!
Heroes of the Storm hits yet another naming conflict
The game currently known as Heroes of the Storm has been through more names than most high school garage bands, having cycled through titles like Blizzard Dota, Blizzard All-Stars, and for a brief period of time, Blizzard Entertainment Presents A Bunch Of Guys Hitting Each Other. (It was an early idea.) Now the game seems to be hitting another snag with its title because of a Finnish tabletop game with the same title. Except in Finnish, obviously. According to WoW Insider, the author of the tabletop game, Mike Pohjola, has made comments implying that Blizzard might want to change the name again to avoid naming conflicts in his home country. How relevant the two games are to one another and how concerned Blizzard actually will be over such a conflict remains to be seen; the application for a trademark came from Blizzard first, but the tabletop game was published before the trademark application. Nothing might come of this, but if the game is renamed again to Blizzard's Steve and Ed Fun-time Game Hour, you'll know why.
Blizzard's MOBA now known as 'Heroes of the Storm'
Blizzard changed the name of its multiplayer online battle arena game, Blizzard All-Stars, to Heroes of the Storm. The publisher crafted a comical trailer to announce the (latest) name change. This is the second change in the game's title, as it was originally known as Blizzard DOTA prior to Blizzard's settlement of a lawsuit with Valve in May 2012 over the use of the trademarked term DOTA. The term stands for "Defense of the Ancients," a fan-made map for Blizzard's Warcraft 3. The settlement stipulated that Valve could continue using "DOTA" commercially in selling games such as DOTA 2, and forced Blizzard to change its MOBA game to Blizzard All-Stars. Blizzard filed a trademark application for Heroes of the Storm just a few weeks ago, so the publisher certainly won't be changing the game's title again, unless it does so out of boredom.
Blizzard All-Stars is now Heroes of the Storm
Blizzard Entertainment announced today that the studio's upcoming MOBA, formerly known as Blizzard All-Stars (and Blizzard Dota before that), will officially launch under the title Heroes of the Storm. The announcement comes after about a month of speculation regarding the Heroes of the Storm name; Blizzard filed the trademark in late September, and guesses ranged from entirely new game to World of Warcraft expansion. Unfortunately, the video doesn't provide any further information on Heroes of the Storm, meaning its release date is likely still "Soon™." Check out the announcement video after the break.
Heroes of the Storm: The renamed Blizzard All-Stars
Blizzard's MOBA is now officially known as Heroes of the Storm! That's right, remember that trademark filed earlier this year? Speculation has abounded as to what it might be -- one of the front-running theories being that it was the name of the next WoW expansion -- but it turns out that was wrong. Not that anyone's sad to be wrong in this case, I'm sure! Given the timing of this (incredibly adorable) mini-trailer's release, I think it's a safe bet we'll be seeing a good deal more from this title at BlizzCon, and I'm certainly looking forward to it!
Blizzard hiring eSports Director for All-Stars
WoW Insider posted back in January about an interview between Eurogamer magazine and Chris Sigaty, Starcraft 2's Production Director, about the ongoing silence on the title. Back then, it was confirmed that there was still a team working on it, but that they were looking at other MOBAs and their business model. But now, as our sister site Massively reports, Blizzard has posted looking for an E-Sports director for the upcoming title, amongst other things. What does this mean? Well, Blizzard isn't renowned for hiring people at great speed any more than it is for making games at great speed, but as Massively points out, this is pretty firm confirmation that the game is still at least in the works. I'm allowing myself to hope that there might be an announcement at BlizzCon this year, although given how it's in only a month and a half, that might be rather ambitious of me.
Blizzard LFM: eSports Director needed for Blizzard All-Stars
When I say Blizzard, you say MOBA! OK, chances are that's not the first thing you think of -- or even the fifth. That's understandable; it's been a long time since any news has come out about Blizzard All-Stars. In fact, the last we heard was just that the game was in "active development," and that was back in January! What's changed since then? While the official site has nothing new to offer, 2P.com found a recruitment listing for a director to handle Blizzard's entire eSports program. This listing specifically mentions the upcoming MOBA, showing that the game has not been completely abandoned. This should give fans some hope that the game might still see the light of day sometime. And perhaps when director is found, we'll hear even more news on the progress of the game. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
The Queue: BlizzCon, daily quests, gnome heads, and more
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Let's go right to the questions! mikkelsdk asked: Considering Blizzard has a lot of things on the table currently (Heartstone, Blizzard All-Stars, Titan, Next WoW Expansion, Diablo 3 xpac and probably SC2 xpac) which of these aren't we going to hear about at Blizzcon? Titan is a given but have Blizzard talking about Heartstone, All-stars, WoW xpac, Diablo 3 xpac and SC2 xpac is kinda of a long shot.
Blizzard All-Stars: What's taking so long?
The above image is pretty much all the information available on the Blizzard All-Stars official website, with the exception of the usual legal and copyright information. We particularly enjoy the "Soonish(TM)". But really, this game was announced back at BlizzCon 2010, so what's causing the delay? The copyright dispute with Valve over the use of the DotA trademark may have set them back a little, but that can't possibly account for the current silence. Back in 2011, Senior Game Designer Jonny Ebbert said that the 2010 version of the game had been "flattened", implying that it was being totally reworked, shifting away from the earlier model of an add-on to Heart of the Swarm. Eurogamer spoke to Chris Sigaty, StarCraft 2's production director, regarding the company's prolonged silence on the title.
Blizzard 'actively working' on All-Stars MOBA
Last spring there was a brouhaha over the name DotA that was ultimately settled with Valve keeping the four-letter moniker and Blizzard changing its upcoming MOBA to Blizzard All-Stars. But after that, the newly rechristened game seemingly fell off the radar. Even the official website only offers the tease "coming soonish." Despite the lack of information, however, the game is still being developed. A recent statement by StarCraft II's production director Chris Sigaty notes that the studio hasn't forgotten about Blizzard All-Stars, but is focusing on its free-to-play business model. "We're actively working on it," Sigaty said. "That I can confirm. A lot of the stuff that's remaining right now that we need to focus on are the systems necessary to pull off a game with a different business model than StarCraft II."
Blizzard talks Heart of the Swarm multiplayer, and what's next for Starcraft 2
Just as E3 was ending last week, Major League Gaming's Spring championships were getting underway in Anaheim, California. Blizzard held a press preview during the opening hours of the tournament to show off the new units and features coming to Starcraft 2's multiplayer component in the upcoming Heart of the Swarm expansion.Each of the three races in the game has a few new units and abilities to study (which you can see in the included trailer), and hardcore players will no doubt be combing through them as the expansion goes into beta. But Heart of the Swarm's multiplayer represents an interesting change in Blizzard's original plan for the three-part series that is Starcraft 2.As lead producer Chris Sigaty (who doubles, by the way, as the lead guitarist for Blizzard's in-house metal band L80ETC) tells Joystiq, the new units are all about adding something to the game without removing what's there.%Gallery-157828%
Diablo 3 world first scored by World of Warcraft raiding guild
Method, one of World of Warcraft's top raiding guilds, has decided to take their thirst for world firsts into the world of Diablo. A three-man team from Method scored the world-first Skeleton King kill on Inferno. For those wholly unfamiliar with Diablo, that means they killed the first boss of the game on the most challenging difficulty level available. A WoW raiding team moving into competitive Diablo is something we found surprising. Dedicated gaming is in the blood of these players, so maybe it really shouldn't be surprising. What we're really curious to see is how many hardcore WoW raiding teams will jump on the Blizzard All-Stars bandwagon when that game launches, too. Will Blizzard All-Stars support that sort of competition when it launches? Will we see a real e-sports scene grow from it, like League of Legends currently supports? And if so, will the World of Warcraft community latch onto that, or will it be an entirely new audience?
Blizzard and Valve settle DOTA dispute, Blizzard DOTA officially Blizzard All-Stars
Blizzard and Valve have been going back and forth about ownership of the DOTA title for awhile now. It's a complicated issue that's been summed up very well by Joystiq's JC Fletcher: "Which giant company has the rights to the fan-created, community-promoted word 'Dota?'" As of today, it turns out Valve has those rights. The two giant companies have amicably settled the issue amongst themselves. Valve will release its DOTA title as Dota 2, and Blizzard will release its as Blizzard All-Stars. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of All-Stars, anyway. It gives the name some real flavor and, as stated by Blizzard VP Rob Pardo, "ultimately better reflects the design of our game." Of course, regardless of the decisions made here, the fan community will inevitably continue calling this genre of games DOTA or some variation thereof. If you care to read the full press release regarding this agreement, hop behind the cut below.
Blizzard renames Blizzard DotA to Blizzard All-Stars
What's in a name? Quite a lot, as it turns out. A name alone was enough to send Blizzard and Valve to man the lawyer cannons over two upcoming games, DOTA 2 from Valve and Blizzard DOTA from Blizzard. The companies have reached an agreement, however, which includes Blizzard renaming its game to Blizzard All-Stars while retaining use of the "dota" name for noncommercial use in the fan community. Valve retains the commercial use of the name. It sounds like a little matter until you remember that Warcraft III was the source of the map that spawned this game type, leading to both companies developing competing versions of a sequel. Blizzard All-Stars currently has no release date, while DOTA 2 is due out sometime next year and is currently in beta testing. Luckily, the terminology is only being changed on the corporate side, meaning players are free to continue discussing the games as they would have anyway.
Blizzard and Valve settle DOTA argument, Blizzard DOTA is now Blizzard All-Stars
Blizzard has dropped a short-and-sweet press release (reprinted below) informing us that it has landed on a "mutual agreement" with Valve regarding the contested "DOTA" trademark. DOTA, of course, stands for "Defense of the Ancients," which is a fanmade map and mode for Blizzard's Warcraft 3, originally based on a Starcraft map. Developer "IceFrog," who's overseen the DOTA map since 2005, has gone to work for Valve on DOTA 2, while Blizzard has been working on its official variation of the game, previously called Blizzard DOTA.The mutual agreement means that Valve will get the rights to use the "DOTA" trademark commercially, so DOTA 2's name won't change. Blizzard reserves the right for fans to use the trademark noncommercially, but will give up the DOTA name for its official variant. That game will instead be called Blizzard All-Stars, "which ultimately better reflects the design of our game," said Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo. "We look forward to going into more detail on that at a later date."Valve's Gabe Newell also gave comment, saying that Valve is "pleased that we could come to an agreement with Blizzard without drawing things out in a way that would benefit no one." Blizzard All-Stars doesn't have a release date yet, and DOTA 2 is due out next year.
